The Way . 



AND 



THE WORD. 



THE WAY. — Except a man be born again, lie cannot see the kingdom 
of God. 

THE WORD.— Search the scriptures. 



CHICAGOs 

F. H. Revell, 91 Washington Stkeet, 

PublisTier of Evangelical Literature. 



I 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by 

F. H. REVELL, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



a 

i 

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/ 



INTRODUCTION. 



My Dear Friend : 

In sending you this little book, I specially commend the 
portion on Kegeneration. It has helped me veiy much. It was 
written by a gentleman in England, who has thoroughly examined 
the question, and presents it from a clear scriptural stand-point. 
It is a subject worthy your careful consideration. 

To those desiring to become Christians, I recommend it, because 
it tells from God's word what man is by nature, and what God 
thinks of sin, and it leaves no excuse to the sinner. At the same 
time it clearly gives the gospel remedy for sin. " Salvation through 
Jesus Christ." It teaches clearly the three great Bible truths : 
man ruined by the fall ; redeemed by the blood ; and regenerated 
by the Holy Spirit. 

To the young convert it presents the truth of the two natures, 
and shows the importance of living very near to Christ, that He 
may keep the old nature in subjection. A careful study of it will 
not only enable us to give a reason for the hope that is in us, but 
to clearly present the plan of salvation to others. 

In presenting " How to Study the Bible," I would emphasize the 
importance of Bible study. God's word is the Christian's daily 
food, and while we always need it, the vigorous, active, growing 
Christian must have it. We need it not only as a means of growth, 
but as furnishing the weapons of our warfare. The Christian, 
grounded in God's word, has a source of strength that can be 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

found nowhere else. If Christians feed upon the word, the world 
will be forgotten, and lose its power over them, and we shall be 
prepared to work for others. If Christians neglect their Bibles, 
they may pray and ask God to use them, but he w 7 ill not, for there 
is not much in them for the Holy Spirit to work upon. Depend 
upon it, if you get tired of the word of God, you are out of com- 
munion with Him. It is the best thing the world has, and if you 
are filled with it, it will shine through you, and you will draw the 
world to Christ. We must come to God's word with a teachable 
spirit, humbly feeling that we know nothing, and need to learn 
everything. 

The result of a prayerful, persistent study of the Bible will be : 

We shall walk in the light, lt The entrance of Thy word giveth 
light ; it giveth understanding unto the simple." 

We shall overcome sin. "Thy word have I hid in my heart 
that I might not sin against Thee." 

We shall speak for Jesus. " My mouth shall speak of Thy right- 
eousness all the day long ; and I will declare Thy faithfulness." 

Having studied the Bible, it is important that we know how 
to use it, and nowhere is this knowledge so essential as in our 
personal work for Christ. In this personal w T ork we can divide 
those we meet into classes. They are : First, the professing 
Christian w T ho has no liberty, and no assurance, but is in " Doubt- 
ing castle." The whole of John's first epistle was written for such. 
Use 1 John v. 13; iii. 2, 14, and 24. 

The second class are backsliders. Use Jeremiah ii. 5, 13, 19, 
27, and 32; iii. 12, 13, 14, and 22; Hosea xiv. 1, 2, and 4; exam- 
ples of backsliders reclaimed, David, Peter, Thomas and all the 
disciples. 



INTRODUCTION. V 

The third class are those not deeply convicted of sin. Use 
Romans iii. 10, 12, and 23; Isaiah i. 5 and 6; I. John i. 10; Isaiah 
liii. 6. 

Avoid speaking false peace. Don't tell a man he is converted. 
Let God tell him that. See Jeremiah vi. 14. 

The fourth class think themselves too great sinners. They are 
under very deep conviction. Use Isaiah i. 18; liii. 4 and 5; 1 Peter 
ii. 24; Isaiah xliii. 25; xliv. 22; Romans v. 6. 

The fifth class don't know how to come to Christ. They must 
receive a person, not a creed. John i. 12. They must believe. 
John iii. 15, 16, 18, and 36; v. 24; vi. 40 and 47. They must 
trust. Isaiah xxvi. 3; Psalms xxxiv. 8. They must take a gift. 
Revelation xxii. 17; Psalms cxvi. 13; Romans vi. 23. They 
must come. John vi. 37; Isaiah lv. 1. 

The new birth. John iii. 7. 1 John v. 1 and 4. 

The sixth class don't feel that they are saved. Nowhere in the 
Bible is feeling coupled with salvation. 

The seventh class go away trusting and come back doubting. 
They have neglected to confess Christ. Use Romans x. 9 and 10; 
Matthew x. 32. 

The eighth class are afraid they will fall. Use Jude, 24th verse; 
Isaiah xli. 10 and 13; 2 Timothy i. 12; Romans viii. 35 and 39; 
Colossians iii. 3 and 4. 

The ninth class say they can't believe. Use John vii. 17. 

The tenth class say they will try to be saved. Use Romans iv. 5. 

Why people are unsaved. John v. 40. 

Who are invited ? Luke xix. 10; Matt. ix. 12; Luke v. 32. 

The time to be saved. See Isaiah lv. 6; 2 Corinthians vi. 2; 
Hebrews iii. 7, 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

The danger of delay. See Proverbs i. 24 and 28. 

Warnings. See Psalms ix. 17; 2 Peter ii. 9. 

Contrasts in conversions. There are no two alike. Matthew; 
Nicodemus; the woman at the well; the thief on the cross; Lydia; 
the Jailer; the Eunuch; Paul; the Centurian. 

Use the great invitations, Revelation xxii. 17; Matthew xi. 28; 
Isaiah lv. 1. 

1 ask the pra} r erful reading of this little book, and trust we may 
meet all into whose hands it may fall in the King's country, to sit 
down at the marriage supper of the Lamb ; and let those with 
whom we have labored during the past eventful w T eeks, go forward 
in the strength of the Lord, and be able to say, " I have fought a 
good fight, I have finished my coarse, I have kept the faith : 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day. And 
not to me only, but to all them that love His appearing. Faithful 
is He which calleth you, who also will do it. 

Your Friend, 
Chicago, Jan. 1, 1877. D. L. MOODY. 



EEGENEEATION 



WHAT IS IT? 



There are few subjects which have given rise to 
more difficulty and perplexity than that of regenera- 
tion, or the new birth. Yery many who are them- 
selves the subjects of this new birth are at a loss to 
know what it is, and are filled with doubt as to whether 
they have ever really experienced it. Many there are 
who, were they to clothe their desires in words, would 
say, " Oh ! that I knew for certain that I had passed 
from death unto life. If only I were sure that I was 
born again, I should be happy indeed/' Thus they 
are harassed with doubts and fears, from day to day, 
and from year to year. Sometimes they are full of 
hope that the great change has passed upon them; but, 
anon, something springs up within them which leads 
them to think their former hopes were a delusion. 
Judging from feeling and experience, rather than from 
the plain teaching of the word of God, they are, of 
necessity, plunged in uncertainty and confusion as to 
the whole matter. 



8 regeneration: what is it? 

Now, I would desire to enter, in company with my 
reader, upon an examination, in the light of Scripture, 
of this most interesting subject. It is to be feared 
that very much of the misapprehension which prevails 
in reference thereto arises from the habit of teaching 
regeneration and its fruits instead of Christ. The 
effect is put before the cause, and this must always 
produce derangement of thought. 

Let us, then, proceed to consider this question. 
What is regeneration ? How is it produced ? What 
are its results ? 

I. And, first, 

WHAT IS REGENERATOR ? 

Very many look upon it as a change of the old nature, 
produced no doubt, by the influence of the Spirit of 
God. This change is gradual in its operation, and 
proceeds from stage to stage, until the old nature is 
completely brought under. This view of the subject 
involves two errors, namely, first, an error as to the 
real condition of our old nature ; and, secondly, as to 
the distinct personality of the Holy Ghost. It denies 
the hopeless ruin of nature, and represents the Holy 
Ghost more as an influence than as a Person. 

As to our true state by nature, the word of God pre- 
sents it as one of total and irrevocable ruin. Let us 
adduce the proofs. " And God saw that the wicked- 
ness of man was great in the earth, and that every im- 



WHAT IS REGENERATION ? 9 

agination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
continually" (Gen. vi. 5). The words " every" 
" only" and " continually" set aside every idea of a 
redeeming feature in man's condition before God. 
Again, " The Lord looked down from heaven upon 
the children of men, to see if there were any that did 
understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, 
they are all together become filthy ; there is none 
that doeth good, no, not one " (Ps. xiv. 2, 3). Here, 
again, the expressions "all" " none" " no, not one" 
preclude the idea of a single redeeming quality in 
man's condition, as judged in the presence of God. 
Having thus drawn a proof from Moses and one from 
the Psalms, let us take one or two from the prophets. 
" Why should ye be stricken any more ? Te will revolt 
more and more : the wholehesid is sick, and the whole 
heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto 
the head there is no soundness in it" (Isa. i. 5,6). 
" The voice said, Cry. And he said, what shall I cry ? 
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as 
the flower of the field" (Isa. xl. 6). "The heart is 
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked : 
who can know it " (Jer. xvii. 9) ? 

The above will suffice from the Old Testament. 
Let us now turn to the New. "Jesus did not commit 
himself, because he knew all, and needed not that any 
should testify of man : for he knew what was in man " 
(John ii. 24, 25). " That which is born of the flesh is 



10 REGENERATION *. WHAT IS IT \ 

flesh " (John iii. 6). Read, also, Romans iii. 9-19. 
" Because the carnal mind is enmity against God : for 
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be " (Rom. viii. 7). " Having no hope, and without 
God in the world" (Eph. ii. 12). These quotations 
might be multiplied, but there is no need. Sufficient 
proof has been adduced to show forth the true condi- 
tion of nature. It is "lost," "guilty," "alienated," 
" without strength," "evil only," "evil continually." 
How, then, we may lawfully inquire, can that 
which is spoken of in such a way ever be changed or 
improved? "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or 
the leopard his spots ?" " That which is crooked can- 
not be made straight." The fact is, the more closely we 
examine the word of God, the more we shall see that 
it is not the divine method to improve a fallen, ruined 
thing, but to bring in something entirely new. It is 
precisely thus in reference to man's natural condition. 
God is not seeking to improve it. The gospel does 
not propose as its object to better man's nature, but to 
give him a new one. It seeks not to put a new piece 
upon an old garment, but to impart a new T garment 
altogether. The law looked for some thing in man, 
but never got it. Ordinances w r ere given, but man 
used them to shut out God. The gospel, on the con- 
trary, shows us Christ magnifying the law and making- 
it honorable ; it shows Him dying on the cross, and 
nailing ordinances thereto ; it shows Him rising from 



"that which is born of the flesh is flesh." 11 

the tomb, and taking His seat as a Conqueror, at the 
right hand of the majesty in the heavens ; and finally, 
it declares that all who believe in His name are par- 
takers of His risen life, and are one with Him. (See, 
carefully, the following passages : — John xx. 31 ; Acts 
xiii. 39 ; Eom. vi. 4-11 ; Eph. ii. 1-6 ; iii. 13-18 ; Col. 
ii. 10-15.) 

It is of the very last importance, to be clear and 
sound as to this. If I am led to believe that regener- 
ation is a certain change in my old nature, and that 
this change is gradual in its operation, then, as a 
necessary consequence, I will be filled with continual 
anxiety and apprehension, doubt and fear, depression- 
and gloom, when I discover, as I surely will, that na 
ture is nature, and will be naught else but nature to 
the end of the chapter. No influence or operation of 
the Holy Ghost can ever make the flesh spiritual. 



and can never be aught else but " flesh ; " and " all 
flesh is as grass" — as withered grass. The flesh is 
presented in Scripture not as a thing to be improved, 
but as a thing which God counts as " dead," and which 
we are called to " mortify" — subdue and deny in all 
its thoughts and ways. In the cross of the Lord Jesus 
Christ we see the end of everything pertaining to our 
old nature. "They that are Christ's have crucified 
the flesh, with the affections and lusts " (Gal. v. 24). 



12 REGENERATION : WHAT IS IT ? 

He does not say, " they that are Christ's are improv- 
ing, or trying to improve the flesh." No ; but they 
have crucified it. It is utterly unimprovable. How 
can they do this ? By the energy of the Holy Ghost, 
acting not on the old nature, but in the new ; and 
enabling them to keep the old nature where the cross 
has put it, namely, in the place of death. God ex- 
pects nothing from the flesh ; neither should we. He 
looks upon it as dead ; so should we. He has put it 
out of sight, and we should keep it so. The flesh 
should not be allowed to show itself. God does not 
own it. It has no existence before Him. True, it is 
in us, but God gives us the precious privilege of view- 
ing and treating it as dead. His word to us is, " Like- 
wise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto 
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord " 
(Eom. vi. 11). 

This is an immense relief to the heart that has 
struggled for years in the hopeless business of trying 
to improve nature. It is an immense relief, moreover, 
to the conscience which has been seeking a foundation 
for its peace in the gradual improvement of a totally 
unimprovable thing. Finally, it is an immense relief 
to any soul that may, for years, have been earnestly 
breathing after holiness, but has looked upon holiness 
as consisting in the improvement of that which hates 
and loves sin. To each and all of such it is infinitely 
precious and important to understand the real nature 



IT IS A NEW BIRTH. 13 

of regeneration. No one who has not experienced it 
can conceive the intensity of anguish, and the bitter- 
ness of the disappointment, which a soul feels, who, 
vainly expecting some improvement in nature, finds, 
after years of struggling, that nature is nature still. 
And just in proportion to the anguish and disappoint- 
ment will be the joy of discovering that God is not 
looking for any improvement in nature — that He sees 
it as dead, and us as alive in Christ — one with Him, 
and accepted in Him, forever. To be led into a clear 
and full apprehension of this, is divine emancipation 
to the conscience, and true elevation for the whole 
moral being. 

Let us, then, see clearly what regeneration is. 

IT IS A NEW BIRTH 

— the imparting of a new life — the implantation of a 
new nature — the formation of a new man. The old 
nature remains in all its distinctness ; and the new na- 
ture is introduced in all its distinctness. The new na- 
ture has its own habits, its own desires, its own ten- 
dencies, its own affections. All these are spiritual, 
heavenly, divine. Its aspirations are all upward. It 
is ever breathing after the heavenly source from which 
it has emanated. As in nature water always finds its 
own level, so in grace the new, the divine nature, always 
tends toward its own proper source. Thus regeneration 
is to the soul what the birth of Isaac was to the house- 



14 regeneration: what is it? 

hold of Abraham (Gen. xxi). Ishmael remained the 
same Ishmael ; but Isaac was introduced. So the old 
nature remains the same ; but the new is introduced. 
"That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 5 '. It par- 
takes of the nature of its source. A child partakes of 
the nature of its parents ; and the believer is made 
" a partaker of the divine nature " (2 Pet. i. 4). " Of 
his own will begat he us " (J ames i. 18). 

In a word, then, regeneration is God's own work, 
from first to last. God is the Operator, man is the 
happy, privileged subject. His co-operation is not 
sought in a work which must ever bear the impress of 
one almighty hand. God was alone in creation — alone 
in redemption — and He must be alone in the myste- 
rious and glorious work of regeneration. 

II. Having endeavored to show, from various pas- 
sages of scripture, that regeneration, or the new birth, 
is not a change of man's fallen nature, but the impart- 
ing of a new — a divine nature — we shall now, in de- 
pendence upon the blessed Spirit's teaching proceed to 
consider 

how the new birth is produced 

— how the new nature is communicated. This is a point 
of immense importance, inasmuch as it places the word 
of God before us as the grand instrument which the 
Holy Ghost uses in quickening dead souls. " By the 
word of the Lord were the heavens made ; " and by 
the word of the Lord are dead souls called into new 



HOW THE NEW BIRTH IS PRODUCED. 15 

life. The word of the Lord is creative and regenera- 
ting. It called worlds into existence ; it calls sinners 
from death to life. The same voice which, of old, 
said, " Let there be light," must in every instance, say, 
" Let there be life." 

If my reader will turn to the third chapter of John's 
gospel, he will find, in our Lord's interview witn Nic- 
odemus, much precious instruction in reference to the 
mode in which regeneration is produced. Nicodemus 
held a very high place in what would be termed the 
religious world. He was "a man of the Pharisees" 
— "a ruler of the Jews " — "a master of Israel." 
He could hardly have occupied a more elevated or 
influential position. But yet, it is very evident that 
this highly-privileged man was ill at ease. Despite 
all his religious advantages, his heart felt a restless 
craving after something which neither his Pharisaism, 
nor yet the entire system of Judaism could supply. 
It is quite possible he might not have been able to de- 
fine what he wanted ; but he wanted something, else 
he never would have " come to Jesus by night." It 
was evident that the Father was drawing him, by a 
resistless though most gentle hand, to the Son ; and 
the way He took of drawing him was by producing a 
sense of need which nothing around him could satisfy. 
This is a very common cas-e. Some are drawn to 
Jesus by a deep sense of guilt — some by a deep sense 
of need. Nicodemus, obviously, belongs to the latter 



16 ' REGENERATION I WHAT IS IT 'i 

class. His position was such as to preclude the idea of 
anything like gross immorality ; and hence it would 
not, in his case, be so much guilt on his conscience, as 
a void in his heart. But it comes to the same in the 
end. The guilty conscience and the craving heart 
must both be brought to Jesus, for He alone can per- 
fectly meet both the one and the other. He can re- 
move, by His precious sacrifice, every stain from the 
conscience ; and He can fill up, by His peerless Person, 
every blank in the heart. The conscience which has 
been purged by the blood of Jesus is perfectly clean ; 
and the heart which is filled with the Person of Jesus 
is perfectly satisfied. 

However, Nicodemus had, like many beside, 

TO UNLEARN A GREAT DEAL 

ere he could really grasp the knowledge of Jesus. He 
had to lay aside a cumbrous mass of religious machin- 
ery, ere he could apprehend the divine simplicity of 
God's plan of salvation. He had to descend from the 
lofty heights of Rabbinical learning and traditionary 
religion, and learn the alphabet of the gospel, in the 
school of Christ. This was very humiliating to "a 
man of the Pharisees 5 ' — "a ruler of the Jews" — "a 
master of Israel." There is nothing of which man is 
so tenacious as his religion and his learning ; and, in 
the case of JSTicodemus, it must have sounded passing 
strange upon his ear when u a teacher come from 



TO UNLEARN A GREAT DEAL. 



17 



God " declared to him, " Yerily, verily, I say unto 
thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." Being by birth a Jew, and as such 
entitled to all the privileges of a son of Abraham, it 
must have involved him in strange perplexity .to be 
told that he must be born again— that he must be the 
subject of a new birth in order to see the kingdom of 
God. This was a total setting aside of all his privi- 
leges and distinctions. It called him down, at once, 
from the very highest to the very " lowest step of the 
ladder." A Pharisee, a ruler, a master, was not one 
whit nearer to, or fitter for, this heavenly kingdom, 
than the most disreputable of the children of men. 
This was deeply humbling. If he could carry all his 
advantages and distinctions with him, so as to have 
them placed to his credit in this new kingdom, it 
would be something. This would secure for him a 
position in the kingdom of God far above that of a 
harlot or a publican. But then to be told that he 
must be born again, left him nothing to glory in. 
This, I repeat, was deeply humbling to a learned, re- 
ligious, and influential man. 

But it was puzzling as well as humbling. "Nico- 
demus saith unto him, How can a man be born when 
he is old? Can he enter the second time into his 
mother's womb, and be born ?" Surely not. There 
would be no more gained by a second natural birth 
than by a first. If a natural man could enter ten 

2 



18 REGENERATION : WHAT IS IT i 

thousand times into his mother's womb and be born, 
he would be naught but a natural man after all ; for 
" that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Do what 
you will with flesh — with nature — yon cannot alter or 
improve it. Nothing could change flesh into spirit. 
You may exalt it to the rank of a Pharisee, a ruler of 
the Jews, a master of Israel — and you could hardly 
make it higher — but it w^ill be flesh, notwithstanding. 
If this were more generally and clearly apprehended, 
it would prove the saving of fruitless labor to 
hundreds. Flesh is of no value whatever. In itself, 
it is but withered grass ; and as to its most pious en- 
deavors, its religious advantages and attainments, its 
works of righteousness, they have been pronounced 
by the pen of inspiration to be u as filthy rags" (Isa. 
Ixiv. 6). 

But let us see the mode in which our blessed Lord 

REPLIES TO THE " HOW ?" 

of Nicodemus. It is peculiarly interesting. Jesus 
answered, " Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, except a 
man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born 
of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the 
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye 
must be born again. The wind bloweth where it 
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst 
not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; so is 



"BORN OF WATER." 19 

every one that is born of the Spirit " (John iii. 5-8). 
Here we are distinctly taught that regeneration, or the 
new birth, is prodaced by " water and the Spirit." A 
man must be born of water and of the Spirit, ere he 
can see the kingdom of God, or enter into its profound 
and heavenly mysteries. The keenest mortal vision 
cannot "see" the kingdom of God, nor the most gi- 
gantic intellect " enter" into the deep secrets thereof, 
" The natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritual- 
ly discerned " (1 Cor. ii. 14). " Except a man be born 
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the king- 
dom of God." 

It may be, however, that many are at a loss to know 
what is meant by being 



Certainly, the expression has been made the ground of 
very much discussion and controversy. It is only by 
comparing scripture with scripture that we can ascer- 
tain the real sense of any particular passage. It is a 
special mercy for the unlettered Christian — the hum- 
ble student of the inspired volume, that he need not 
travel outside the covers of that volume in order to 
interpret any passage contained therein. 

What, then, is the meaning of being "born of 
water?" We must reply to this question by quoting 



20 REGENERATION I WHAT IS IT ? 

two or three passages from the word. In the opening 
of John's gospel, we read, " He came unto his own, 
and his own received him not. But as many as re- 
ceived him, to them gave he power to become the sons 
of God, even to them that believe on his name : which, 
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God" (chap. i. 11-13). 
From this passage we learn that every one who 
believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is born 
again — born of God. This is the plain sense of the 
passage. All who, by the power of God the Holy 
Ghost, believe on God the Son, are born of God the 
Father. The source of the testimony is divine ; the 
object of the testimony is divine ; the power of re- 
ceiving the testimony is divine ; the entire work of 
regeneration is divine. Hence, instead of being occu- 
pied with myself, and inquiring, like Mcodemus, how 
can I be born again, I have simply to cast myself, by 
faith, on Jesus ; and thus I am born again. All who 
put their trust in Christ have gotten a new life — are 
regenerated. 

Again, " Yerily, verily, I say unto you, he that 
heareth my vjord, and believeth on him that sent me, 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- 
nation ; but is passed from death unto life " (John v. 
24). " Yerily, verily, I say unto you, he that 
believeth on me hath everlasting life " (John vi. 47). 
" But these are written, that ye might believe that 



"borjst of water." 21 

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that, believ- 
ing, ye might have life through his name " (John xx. 
31). All these passages go to prove that the only way 
in which we can get this new and everlasting life is 
by simply receiving the record concerning Christ, 
All who believe that record have this new — this eter- 
nal life. Mark, it is not those who merely say they 
believe, but those who actually do believe, according to 
the sense of the word in the foregoing passages. There 
is life-giving power in the Christ whom the Word re- 
veals, and in the Word which reveais Him. " Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coining, and now is, 
when the dead shall heas the voice of the Son of God ; 
and they that hear shall live." And then, lest ignor- 
ance should marvel, or skepticism sneer, at the idea of 
dead souls hearing it is added, " Marvel not at this : 
for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in 
the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth 
— they that have done good unto the resurrection of 
life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection 
of judgment " (John v. 25, 28, 29). The Lord Christ 
can make dead souls, as well as dead bodies, hear His 
quickening voice. It is by His mighty voice that life 
can be communicated to either body or soul. If the 
infidel or the skeptic reasons and objects, it is simply 
because lie makes his own vain mind the standard of 
what ought to be, and thus entirely shuts out God. 
This is the climax of folly. 



22 REGENERATION I WHAT IS IT ? 

But the reader may feel disposed to inquire, " What 
has all this to do with the meaning of the word 
' water,' in John iii. 5 ?" It has to do with it, inas- 
much as it shows that the new birth is produced, the 
new life communicated, by the voice of Christ — which 
is, really, the word of God, as we read in the first 
chapter of James, " of his own will begat he us with 
the word of truth " (v. 18). So also, in first Peter, 
"Being horn again, not of corruptible seed, but of in- 
corruptible, hy the word of God, which liveth and 
abideth forever " (chap. i. 23). In both these passages 
the word is expressly set forth as the instrument by 
which the new birth is produced. James declares 
that we are begotten " by the word of truth ;" and 
Peter declares that we are " born again by the word of 
God." If, then, our Lord speaks of being " born of 
water," it is obvious that He represents the Word 
under the significant figure of " water " — a figure 
which "a master of Israel'' might have understood, 
had he only studied aright, Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27. 

There is a beautiful passage in the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, in which the word is presented under the 
figure of water. " Husbands, love your wives, even 
as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for 
it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the wash- 
ing of ivater hy the word" (chap. v. 25, 26). So also 
in the Epistle to Titus : " Not by works of righteous- 
ness which we have done, but according to his mercy, 



THE WORD OF GOD. 23 

lie saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us 
abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; that, 
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs 
according to the hope of eternal life" (chap. iii. 5, 6, 7). 
From all these quotations, we learn that 

THE WOED OF GOD 

is the grand instrument of which the Holy Ghost 
makes use in calling dead souls into life. This truth 
is confirmed, in a peculiarly interesting manner, by our 
Lord's conversation with Jucodemus ; for, instead of 
replying to the repeated inquiry, "how can these 
things be?" lie sets this " master of Israel" down to 
learn the simple lesson taught by "the brazen serpent." 
The bitten Israelite of old was to be healed by simply 
looking at the serpent of brass on the pole. The dead 
sinner now is to get life by simply looking at Jesus on 
the cross, and Jesus on the throne. The Israelite was 
not told to look at his wound, though it was the sense 
of his wound that made him look. The dead sinner 
is not told to look at his sins, though it is the sense of 
his sins that will make him look. One look at the 
serpent healed the Israelite ; one look at Jesus quick- 
ens the dead sinner. The former had not to look a 
second time to be healed; the latter has not to look a 
second time to get life. It was not the way he looked, 
but the object he looked at, that healed the Israelite ; 



24 REGENERATION : WHAT is IT \ 

it is not the way he looks, but the object he looks at, 
that saves the sinner. " Look unto me, and be ye 
saved, all the ends of the earth." 

Such was the precious lesson which Nicodemus was 
called to learn — such the reply to his " how." If a 
man begins to reason about the new birth, he must be 
confounded ; but if he believes in Jesus, he is born 
again. Man's reason can never understand the new 
birth ; but the word of God produces it. Many are 
astray as to this. They are occupied with the process 
of regeneration, instead of the w r ord which regenerates. 
Thus are they perplexed and confounded. They are 
looking at self, instead of at Christ ; and as there is an 
inseparable connection between the object at which we 
look and the effect of looking at it, we can easily see 
what must be the effect of looking in upon one's self. 
What would an Israelite have gained by looking at his 
wound ? Nothing. What did he gain by looking at 
the serpent ? Health. What does a sinner gain by 
looking at himself? Nothing. What does he gain by 
looking at Jesus ? " Everlasting life." 

III. We come now to consider, in the third and 
last place, 

THE RESULTS OF REGENERATION 

— a point of the deepest interest. Who can estimate 
aright the glorious results of being a child of God ? 
Who can unfold those affections which belong to that 
high and hallowed relationship in which the soul is 



THE RESULTS OF REGENERATION. 25 

placed by being born again ? Who can folly explain 
that precious fellowship which the child of God is 
privileged to enjoy with his heavenly Father ? u Be- 
hold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed 
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God : 
therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew 
Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and 
it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know 
that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for 
we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath 
this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" 
(1 John iii. 1-3). " For as many as are led by the 
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have 
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but 
ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we 
cry Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spirit, that we are the children of God : and 
if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs 
with Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we 
may be also glorified together" (Rom. viii. 14-17). 

It is most important to understand the distinction 
between life and peace. The former is the result of 
being linked with Christ's Person ; the latter is the 
result of His work. " He that hath the Son hath life v 
(1 John v. 12). But " being justified by faith, we 
have peace" (Rom. v. 1). "Having made peace 
through the blood of his cross" (Col. i. 20). The very 
moment a man receives into his heart the simple truth 



26 REGENERATION! WHAT IS IT ? 

of the gospel, he becomes a child of God. The truth 
which he receives is the "incorruptible seed" of "the 
divine nature" (1 Pet. i. 23 ; 2 Pet. i. 4). Many are 
not aware of all that is involved in thus simply receiv- 
ing the truth of the gospel. As in nature the child of 
a nobleman may not know the varied results of the 
relationship, so is it, likewise, in grace. I may be 
ignorant both as to the relationship and its results ; 
but I am in it, notwithstanding; and being in it, I 
have the affections which belong to it, and I ought to 
cultivate them, and allow them to entwine themselves 
artlessly around their proper object, even Him who 
has begotten me by the w r ord of truth (James i. 18). 
It is my privilege to enjoy the full flow of paternal 
affection emanating from the bosom of God, and to 
reciprocate that affection, through the power of the 
indwelling Spirit. " Now are we the sons of God." 
He has .made us such. He has attached this rare and 
marvelous privilege to the simple belief of the truth 
(John i. 12). We do not reach this position " by works 
of righteousness which we have done," or could do ; 
but simply " according to his mercy he saved us, by 
the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly, through 
Jesus Christ our Saviour. That, being justified by His 
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope 
of eternal life " (Tit. iii. 5-7). We are " called sons," 
and " made heirs ;" and all this simply by the belief of 



THE VERY VILEST SINNER. 27 

the truth of the gospel, which is God's " incorruptible 
seed." 

Take the case of 

THE VERY VILEST SE5TNER 

who, up to this moment, has been living a life of gross 
wickedness. Let that person receive into his heart 
the pure gospel of God ; let him heartily believe " that 
Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures ; 
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the 
third day, according to the Scriptures ;" and he there, 
then, and thus, becomes a child of God, a thoroughly 
saved, perfectly justified, and divinely accepted person, 
In receiving into his heart the simple record concern- 
ing Christ, he has received new life. Christ is the 
truth and the life, and when we receive the truth we 
receive Christ ; and when we receive Christ we receive 
life. " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
life " (John iii. 36). When does he get this life \ The 
very moment he believes. "Believing, ye might hare 
life through his name " (John xx. 31). The truth con- 
cerning Christ is the seed of eternal life, and when 
that truth is believed, life is communicated. 

Observe, this is what the Word of God declares. 
It is a matter of divine testimony, not merely a human 
feeling. We do not get life b} 7 feeling something in 
ourselves, but by believing something about Christ ; 
and that something we have on the authority of God's 



28 REGENERATION : WHAT IS IT ? 

eternal Word — " the holy Scriptures." It is well to 
understand this. Many are looking m, for evidences 
of the new life, instead of looking out at the object 
which imparts the life. It is quite true that " he that 
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him- 
self" (1 John v. 10) ; but, be it remembered, it is " the 
witness" of a life which is received by ''believing on 
the Son of God," not by looking in upon one's self; 
and the more undividedly I am occupied with Christ, 
the more distinct and satisfactory will be "the wit- 
ness" in myself. If I make the witness my object, I 
shall be plunged in doubt and uncertainty ; but if I 
make Christ my object, I have the witness in all its 
divine integrity and power. There is special need of 
clearness as to this, because of the strong tendency of 
our hearts to make something within the ground of 
our peace and contentment, instead of building, abso- 
lutely and exclusively, upon Christ. The more simply 
we cling to Christ, apart from all beside, the more 
peaceful and happy we shall be ; but directly we take 
the eye off Him, we become unhinged and unhappy. 
In a word, then, my reader should seek to under- 
stand, with Scriptural accuracy, the distinction be- 
tween life and peace. The former is the result of the 
connection with Christ's Person / the latter is the re- 
sult of believing in His finished tvork. We very 
frequently meet with quickened souls who are in sad 
trouble and disquietude as to their acceptance with 



THE VERY VILEST 3INNER. 29 

God. They really do believe on the name of the Son 
of God, and, believing, they have life; but fiom not 
seeing the fullness of the work of Christ as to their 
sins, they are troubled in conscience — they have no 
mental repose. Take an illustration. If you place a 
hundred-weight upon the bosom of a dead man, he 
does not feel it. Place another, and another, and an- 
other, he is wholly unconscious. Why ? Because 
there is no life. Let us suppose, for a moment, the 
entrance in of life, and what will be the result ? A 
most distressing sensation, occasioned by the terrible 
weight upon the bosom. What, then, will be needful, 
in order to the full enjoyment of the life which has 
been imparted ? Clearly, the removal of the burden. 
It is somewhat thus with the sinner who receives life 
by believing on the Person of the Son of God. So 
long as he was in a state of spiritual death, he had no 
spiritual sensations ; he was unconscious of any weight 
pressing upon him. But the entrance in of spiritual 
life has imparted spiritual sensibilities, and he now 
feels a burden pressing upon his heart and conscience, 
which he knows not exactly how to get rid of. He 
sees not, as yet, all that is involved in believing on 
the name of the only-begotten Son of God. He does 
not see that Christ is, at once, his righteousness and 
his life. He needs a simple view of the finished atone- 
ment of Christ, whereby all his sins were plunged 
in thfc waters of eternal oblivion, and he himself intro- 



30 REGENERATION : WHAT IS IT ? 

cluced into the full favor of God. It is this, and this 
alone, that can remove the heavy burden oif the 
heart, and impart that profound mental repose which 
nothing can ever disturb. 

If I think of God as a Judge, and myself as a sinner, 
I need 

, THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS 

to bring me into His presence, in the way of right- 
eousness. I must fully understand that every claim 
which God, the righteous Judge, had upon me, a 
guilty sinner, has been divinely answered, and eter- 
nally settled by " the precious blood of Christ." This 
gives my soul peace. I see that, through that blood, 
God can be "just and the justifier of him which be- 
lieveth in Jesus " (Rom. iii. 26). I learn that, in the 
cross, God has been glorified about my sins ; yea, 
that the whole question of sin was fully gone into and 
perfectly settled between God and Christ, amid the 
deep and awful solitudes of Calvary. Thus my load 
is taken oif; my weight removed ; my guilt canceled ; 
I can breathe freely ; I have perfect peace ; there is 
literally nothing against me ; I am as free as the 
blood of Christ can make me. The Judge has de- 
clared himself satisfied as to sin, by raising the 
sinner's Surety from the dead, and placing him at the 
right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. 

But, then, there comes another thing of immense 
value. I not only see myself, as a guilty sinner, pro- 



THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS. 31 

vided with a way of access to God, as a righteous 
Judge, but I see God, in pursuance of his eternal 
counsels of electing love, begetting me through the 
word of truth, making me His child, adopting me 
into His family, and setting me before Him in such a 
way as that I can enjoy communion with Him as my 
Father, in the midst of all the tender endearments of 
the divine family circle. This is, obviously, another 
phase of the believer's position and character. It is 
no longer a question of his coming to God in the full 
and settled consciousness that every just claim has 
been met. This, in itself, is ineffably precious to 
every sin-burdened heart. But there is far more than 
this. God is my father, and I am His child. He has 
a Father's heart, and I can count on the tender affec- 
tions of that heart in the midst of all my feebleness 
and need. He loves me, not because of what I am 
enabled to do, but because I am His child. 

Look at yonder tottering babe, the object of cease- 
less care and solicitude, wholly unable to promote his 
father's interests in any one way, yet so loved by the 
father that he would not exchange him for ten thou- 
sand worlds; and if it be thus with an earthly father, 
what must it be with our heavenly Father \ He loves 
us, not for aught that we are able to do, but because 
we are His children. He has begotten us, of His own 
will, by the word of truth (James i. 18). We could 
no more earn a place in the heart of the Father than 



32 REGENERATION I WHAT 16 IT ? 

we could satisfy the claims of the righteous Judge. 
All is of free grace. The Father has begotten us, and 
the Judge has found a ransom (Job xxxiii. 24). We 
are debtors to grace for both the one and the other. 

But, be it remembered, while we are wholly unable 
to earn, by our works, a place in the Father's heart, 
or to satisfy the claims of the righteous Judge, we are, 
nevertheless, responsible to " believe the record which 
God has given of His Son " (1 John v. 9-11). I say 
this lest, by any means, my reader should be one of 
those who entrench themselves behind the dogmas of 
a one-sided theology, while refusing to believe the 
plain testimony of God. Many there are — intelligent 
people, too — who, when the gospel of the grace of 
God is pressed upon their acceptance, are ready to 
reply, " I cannot believe unless God gives me power 
to do so ; nor shall I ever be endowed with that power 
unless I am one of the elect. If I belong to the 
favored number, I must be saved ; if not, I carftP 

This is a thoroughly one-sided theology ; and not 
only so, but its one side is turned the wrong way; yea, 
it is so turned as to wear the form of an absurd but 
most dangerous fatalism, which completely destroys 
man's responsibility, and casts dishonor upon God's 
moral administration. It sends man forth upon a 
wild career of reckless folly, and makes God the author 
of the sinner's unbelief. This is, in good truth, to add 
insult to injury. It is, first, 



TO MAKE GOD A LiAR. 33 



TO MAKE GOD A LIAR, 



and then charge Him with being the cause of it. It 
is to reject His proffered love, and blame Him for the 
rejection. This is, in reality, the most daring wicked- 
ness, though based, as I have said, upon a one-sided 
theology. 

Now, does any one imagine that an argument so 
flimsy will hold good for a single moment in the pres- 
ence of the king of terrors, or before the judgment 
seat of Christ .? Is there a soul throughout the gloomy 
regions of the lost that would ever think of charging 
God with being the author of its eternal perdition ? 
Ah ! no ; it is only on earth that people argue thus. 
Such arguments are never breathed in hell. When 
men get to hell, they blame themselves. In heaven, 
they praise the Lamb. All who are lost will have to 
thank self ; all who are saved will have to thank God. 
It is when the impenitent soul has passed through the 
narrow archway of time into the boundless ocean of 
eternity, that it will enter into the full depth and 
power of those solemn words, " I would, but ye would 
notP In truth, human responsibility is as distinctly 
taught in the Word of God as is divine sovereignty. 
Man finds it impossible to frame a system of divinity 
which will give each truth its proper place ; but he is 
not called upon to frame systems, but to believe a plain 
record, and be saved thereby. 



34 REGENERATION I WHAT IS IT ? 

Having said thus much, by way of caution, to any 
who may be in danger of falling under the power of 
the above line of argument, I shall proceed to unfold 
a little further the results of regeneration, as seen in 
the matter of the discipline of the Father's house. 



we are admitted to all the privileges of His house, and, 
in ppint of fact, the discipline of the house is as much 
a privilege as anything else. It is on the ground of 
the relationship in which God has set us, that He acts 
in discipline toward us. A father disciplines his child- 
ren because they are his. If I see a strange child 
doing wrong, I am not called upon to chasten him. I 
am not in relationship of a father to him, and, as a 
consequence, I neither know the affections nor the 
responsibilities of that relationship. I must be in a 
relationship in order to know the affections which be- 
long to it. Now, as our Father, God, in His great 
grace and faithfulness, looks after us in all our ways, 
He will not suffer aught upon us, or about us, which 
would be unworthy of Him, and subversive of our" 
real peace and blessedness. " Furthermore, we have 
had fathers of our flesh*, which corrected us, and we 
gave them reverence : shall we not much rather be in 
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live ? For 
they verily for a few days chastened us after their own 
pleasure ; but he for our profit, that we might be par- 



AS TIIE CHILDREN OF GOD, 35 

takers of his holiness" (Heb. xii. 9, 10). Thus the 
discipline is a positive privilege, inasmuch as it is a 
proof of our Father's care, and has for its object our 
participation in the divine holiness. 

But, then, we must ever bear in mind that the dis- 
cipline of our Father's hand is to be interpreted in the 
light of our Father's countenance, and the deep mys- 
teries of His moral government to be contemplated 
through the medium of His tender love. If we lose 
sight of this, we shall be sure to get into a spirit of 
bondage as respects ourselves, and a spirit of judgment 
as respects others, both of which are in direct opposi- 
tion to the spirit of Christ. All our Father's dealings 
with us are in perfect love. When he furnishes us 
with bread, it is in love ; and when He takes down the 
rod, it is in love also. "God is love" It may fre- 
quently happen that we are at a loss to know the why 
and the wherefore of some special dispensation of our 
Father's hand. It seems dark and inexplicable. The 
mist which enwraps our spirits is so thick and heavy 
as to prevent our catching the bright and cheering 
beams from our Father's countenance. This is a try- 
ing moment — a solemn crisis in the soul's history. 
We are in great danger of losing the sense of divine 
love, through inability to understand the profound se- 
crets of divine government. Satan, too, is sure to be 
busy at such a time. He will ply his fiery darts, and 
throw in his dark and diabolical suggestions. Thus, 



36 REGENERATION t WHAT IS IT ? 

between the filthy reasonings which spring up within 
and the horrible suggestions which come from without, 
the soul is in danger of losing its balance, and of get- 
ting away from the precious attitude of artless repose 
in divine love, let the divine government be what it 
may. 

Thus much with reference to our own souls, while 
under any special visitation of the hand of God. The 
effect as to others is equally bad. How often may we 
have detected ourselves in the habit of cherishing a 
spirit of judgment, in reference to a child of God 
whom we found in circumstances of trial^ either of 
"mind, body, or estate." This should be carefully 
guarded against. "We ought not to imagine that 
every visitation of the hand of God must necessarily 
be on account of some special sin in the person. This 
would be an entirely false principle. The dealings of 
God are preventive as well as corrective. 

Take a case in point. My child may be in the room 
with me, enjoying all the sweet intimacies which be- 
long to our relationship. A person enters who I know 
will utter things which I do not wish my child to hear. 
I, therefore, without assigning any reason, tell my 
child to go to his room. Now, if he has not the full- 
est confidence in my love, he may entertain all manner 
of false notions about my act. He may reason about 
the why and wherefore to such a degree as almost to 
question my affection. However, directly the visitor 



AS THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 37 

takes his leave, I call the child into my presence and 
explain the whole matter to him ; and, in the renewed 
experience of a father's love, he gets rid of the un- 
happy suspicions of a few dark moments. 

Thus it is often with our poor hearts, in the matter 
of the divine dealings, both with ourselves and others. 
We reason when we ought to repose ; we doubt when 
we ought to depend. Confidence in our Father's love 
is the true corrective in all things. 

We should ever hold fast the assurance of that 
changeless, infinite, and everlasting love which has 
taken Ui up in our low and lost estate, made us " sons of 
God," and will never fail us, never let us go, until we 
enter upon the unbroken and eternal communion of 
our Father's house above. May that love dwell more 
abundantly in our hearts, that so we may enter more 
fully into the meaning and power of regeneration — 
what it is — how it is produced — and what are its re- 
sults. God grant it, for Christ's sake ! Amen. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 



"And aU the people gathered themselves together as one man into 
the street that was before the water-gate; and they spake unto 
Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which 
the Lord had commanded to Israel, and Ezra the priest 
brought the law before the congregation both of men and 
women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the 
first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before 
the street that was before the water-gate from the morning 
unto midday, before the men and the women, and those that 
could understand; and the ears of all the people were atten- 
tive unto the book of the law."— Nehemiah viii. 1-3. 

The children of Israel had been in captivity for 
seventy years, and now they had come back into their 
own land ; and the description given in these verses is 
what we should call a Bible reading, just getting the 
people together and reading the Word of the Lord to 
them. And perhaps it would be a good thing if we 
could have more meetings where the Word of God is 
read and explained. It is better to hear God rather 
than man, and I believe we are living in a day when 
the Bible is neglected, although we are living* in a land 
of Bibles. 



40 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

The children of Israel had been in a strange land, 
and God wished them to understand his law. It says 
that they were attentive to the law ; that is to say, they 
were just leaning forward and drinking in the words 
that w^ere read to them. You have sometimes seen a 
nest of birds, and the mother comes with a little worm to 
feed them, and in an instant every mouth is wide open ; 
and in like manner every one of us ought to have our 
ears wide open to catch the meaning of the Word of 
God when it is read to us ; and if there is anything we 
don't understand, we ought to go to the minister and 
have an inquiry-meeting with him, and ask him to ex- 
plain it to us. 

We read in the 9th verse, " For all the people wept, 
when they heard the words of the law. Then he said 
unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the 
sw^eet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing- 
is prepared : for this day is holy unto the Lord : neither 
be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'' 
What we want, nowadays, brethren, is a joyful church. 
If we are in Babylon, with our harps hanging on the 
willow trees and our heads bowed down, we are not 
likely to succeed in winning souls to Christ. No ; it 
is when we are back again on the resurrection ground 
that we may hope to succeed in that. A backslidden 
church is a nuisance in the world. It is just a stum- 
bling-block, and nothing more. In the 17th verse we 
read, "And all the congregation of them that were 



WORD OF GOD IN OUR HEARTS. 41 

come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat 
under the booths : for since the days of Joshua the son 
of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel 
done so. And there was very great gladness." And 
there always will be great gladness when a backsliding 
people come back to God. 

When the Israelites were going to Babylon, trodden 
down by their oppressors and led away into a foreign 
land, we read in Jeremiah xx. 9, " Then I said, I will 
not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in his 
name : but his Word was in my heart as a burning 
fire shut up in my bo^es, and I was weary with for- 
bearing, and I could not stay." Yes, it is a good thing 
to have the 

WORD OF GOD IN OUR HEARTS, 

so that it burns within us, and we cannot hold our 
peace. The psalmist said it was hidden in his heart. 
Some one has remarked that it was a good thing in a 
good place for a good purpose. We want the Word to 
burn right down into our souls ; then a man cannot 
restrain himself, it begins to burn so that it would actu- 
ally burn him up if he held his peace and did not speak 
out. " Is not my Word like as a fire, saith the Lord, 
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ?" 
The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and if you 
young converts want to be used of God, you must feed 
on His Word. Your experience may be very good and 
very profitable at the outset, and you may help others 



42 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

by telling it to them ; but if you keep on doing nothing 
else but telling your experience, it will soon become 
stale and unprofitable, and people will weary of hear- 
ing the same thing over and over again. When you 
have told how you have been converted, the next thing 
is to feed on the Word. We are not fountains our- 
selves, but the Word of God is the fountain. And if 
we feed on the Word, it will be very easy then to speak 
to others ; and not only that, but we shall be growing 
all the while in grace, and others will take notice of 
our walk and conversation. 

Now, I never saw a useful Christian who was not a 
student of the Bible. We must have the Word itself, 
which is sharper than any two-edged sword. Now, if 
you read the sermon spoken by Moses before he left 
the children of Israel, you will find it was just a re- 
hearsal of what God had done for them, and of their 
deliverance from the cruel hands of Pharaoh ; of the 
destruction of their enemies in the Red Sea, and their 
safe conduct through the wilderness ; and yet I do not 
suppose there was a boy in the camp who could not 
have told it all over. And you will find that Joshua 
did the same, and when Peter stood up on the day of 
Pentecost, the Spirit of the Lord was in him, and he 
went on quoting Scripture to the people, and that was 
the arrow that went down into their souls. Then, 
again, what did the devout and martyred Stephen do 
but just rehearse and expound the Scriptures from the 
time of Abraham downwards ? 



CHRIST OVERCAME SATAN BY THE WORD. 43 

People are constantly saying, We want son&thing 
new, some new doctrine, some new idea. Depend 
upon it, my Mends, if you get tired of the Word of 
God, and it becomes wearisome to you, you are out of 
communion with Him. What you want is some one 
who will unfold and expound the Scriptures to you. 
We cannot overcome Satan with our feelings. The 
reason why some people have such a hitter experience 
is, they try to overcome the devil by their feelings and 
experiences. 

CHRIST OVERCAME SATAN BY THE WORD. 

He simply said : " It is written ; " and a second time, 
" It is written ; " and Satan came and tried to misquote 
the Scripture, but Christ said again, "It is written;" 
and that was the arrow that shot right into him and 
drove him away. The devil does not care a bit about 
our feelings. He can play on our feelings just as a man 
can on a harp. He can make our feelings good or bad ; 
he can take us up on the mountain, or down into the 
valley ; and we can only vanquish him by the Word, 
which is the sword of the Spirit. 

And then bear in mind there is no situation in life 
for which you cannot find some word of consolation in 
Scripture. If you are in affliction, there is a promise 
for you ; if you are in adversity and trial, there is a 
promise for you ; in joy and in sorrow, in health and 
in sickness, in poverty or in riches, in every condition 



44 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

in life} God lias a promise stored up in His Word for 
you. 

I can imagine some person asking, How can I get 
to be in love with the Bible ? Well, if you will only 
rouse yourselves to the study of it, and ask God's as- 
sistance, He will assuredly help you. I think there 
are 

THREE BOOKS EVERY CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO POSSESS. 

The first, of course, is the Bible. 1 believe in getting 
a good Bible, with a good plain print. I have not 
much love for those little Bibles you have to hold right 
up under your nose to read the print; and if the 
church happens to be a little dark you cannot see the 
print, but it becomes a mere jumble of words. Yes ; 
but some of you say you cannot carry a big Bible in 
your pocket. Very well, then, carry it under your 
arm ; and if you have to walk five miles, you will just 
be preaching a sermon five miles long. I have known 
a man convicted by seeing another carrying his Bible 
under his arm. You are not ashamed to carry hymn- 
books and prayer-books, and the Bible is worth all the 
hymn-books and prayer-books in the world put to- 
gether. And if you get a good Bible you are likely 
to take better care of it. Suppose you pay five or ten 
dollars for a good Bible, the older you grow the more 
precious it will become to you. But be sure you don*t 
get one so good that you will be afraid to mark it. 
Then next I would advise you to get Cruderts Con- 



STUDY TOPICALLY 45 

cordance, and a " Scripture Text-book" — not a " Birth- 
day Text-book." These books will help you to study 
the Word of God with profit. If you have not got 
them, get them, for every Christian ought to have 
them. 

Then I find one of the best ways to study the 
Scriptures is to 

STUDY TOPICALLY. 

I used at one time to read so many chapters a day ; 
and if I did not, I thought I was getting cold and 
backsliding ; but mind you, if a man had asked me 
two hours afterwards what I had read I could not tell 
him. I had forgotten it nearly all. When I was a 
boy, I used, among other things, to have to hoe tur- 
nips on a farm, and I used to hoe them so badly, to 
get over so much ground, that at night I had to put 
down a stick in the ground so as to know next morn- 
ing where I had left off. That was somewhat in the 
same fashion as running through so many chapters 
every day. A man will say : " Wife, did I read that 
chapter?" "Well," says she, "I don't remember," 
and neither of them can recollect ; and perhaps he 
reads the same chapter over and over again, and they 
call that studying the Bible. I don't think there is a 
book in the world we neglect so much as the Bible. 
Merely reading the Bible is no use at all without we 
study it thoroughly, and hunt it through for some 
great truth. Suppose a friend were to see me search- 



46 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

ing about this building, and were to come up and say : 
" Moody, what are you looking for ? Have you lost 
something ?" and I were to say : " No, I haven't lost 
anything ; I'm not looking for anything particular," 
why, he would let me go on by myself, and think me 
very foolish. But if I were to say, " Yes, I have lost 
my pocket-book," why, then I might expect him to 
help me find it. Read the Bible, my friends, as if you 
were seeking for something of value. It is a good 
deal better to take a single chapter and spend a month 
on it than to go on 

READING THE BIBLE AT RANDOM 

for a month. 

I find some people now and then who boast that 
they have read the Bible through in so many months. 
Others read the Bible chapter by chapter, and get 
through it in a year ; but I think it would be almost 
better to spend a year over one chapter. If I were 
going into a court of justice, and wanted to carry the 
jury with me, I would get every witness I could to 
testify to the one point on which I wanted to convince 
the jury. I w^ould not get them to testify on every- 
thing, but just on that one thing ; and so it should be 
with the Scriptures. I took up the word "love," and 
I don't know how many weeks I spent in studying the 
passages in which it occurs, till at last I couldnH help 
loving people. I had been feeding so long on love 



ASSURANCE. 47 

that I was anxious to do everybody good that I came 
in contact with. Take up grace ; take up faith ; take 
up 

ASSURANCE. 

Some people say, I don't believe in assurance. I 
never knew anybody who read their Bible but believed 
in assurance. It teaches nothing else. Paul says : 
" I know in whom I have believed." Job says : " I 
know that my Redeemer liveth." It is not, "I hope," 
" I trust." The best book on assurance was written 
by one called " John," at the back part of the Bible. 
He wrote an epistle on assurance. 

Sometimes you get a word that will be a sort of key 
to the epistle, and which unfolds it. Now if you turn 
to John xx. 31, you will find it says : " These are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God ; and that believing, ye might have 
life through his name." Then, if you turn to 1 John 
v. 13, you will read thus: "These things have I 
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son 
of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, 
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of 
God." That whole epistle is written on assurance. 
I have no doubt John had found some people who 
had doubts about assurance, and doubted whether they 
were saved or not, and he takes up his pen and says, 
" I will settle that question ;" and he writes that 13th 
verse in the 5th chapter of his firgt epistle, I have 



48 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

heard some people say it was not their privilege to 
know that they were saved ; they had heard the min- 
ister say that no one could know whether they were 
saved or not, and so they took what the minister said 
instead of what the Word of God said. Others read 
the Bible to make it fit in and prove their favorite 
creed or notions, and if it did not do that they would 
not read it. It has been well said that we must not 
read the Bible by the blue light of Presbyterianism, 
nor the red light of Methodism, nor the violet light of 
Episcopalism, but by the light of the Spirit of God. 
Now, if you will just take up your Bible and study as- 
surance for a week, you will soon find it is your privi- 
lege to know that you are a child of God. 
Then take another thing — 

THE PROMISES OF GOD. 

Let a man feed for a month on the promises of God, 
and he will not be talking about how poor he is. 
There are said to be truly one thousand of them in 
the Bible. You hear people say — " Oh, my leanness ! 
how lean I am 1" My friends, it is not their leanness, 
it is their laziness. If you would only go from Gene- 
sis to Revelation, and see all the promises made by 
God to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to the Jews 
and the Gentiles, and to all his people eve^where ; if 
you were to spend a month feeding on the precious 
promises of God, you wouldn't be going about with 



"prayer." 49 

your heads hanging down like bulrushes, complaining 
how poor you are ; but you would lift up your heads 
with confidence, and proclaim the riches of His grace, 
because you couldn't help it. After the Chicago fire, 
a man came up to me, and said in a sympathizing tone, 
"I understand you lost everything, Moody, in the 
Chicago fire." " Well, then," said I, " some one 
has misinformed you." " Indeed ! Why, I was cer- 
tainly told that you had lost all." "No; it's a mis- 
take," I said ; " quite a mistake." " Have you got 
much left then ?" asked my friend. " Yes," I replied ; 
" I have got much more left than I lost, though I can- 
not tell how much I have lost." " Well, I am glad of 
it, Moody ; I did not know you were that rich 
before the fire." " Yes," said I, " I am a good deal 
richer than you could conceive ; and here is my title- 
deed — ' He that overcometh shall inherit all things/ 
They say the Rothschilds cannot tell how much they 
are worth, and that's just my case. All things in the 
world are mine ; I am joint-heir with Jesus the Son 
of God." 

Then suppose you spend a month on 

" PRAYER," 

run through the Scriptures on prayer ; why, the Bible 
will become a new book to you. Then take up hope, 
and faith, and grace, and feed on them. I remember 
the first time I studied grace I got so full of it that I 



50 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

stopped every man and woman I met, and told them 
how God loved them. When Christ came with his 
message of grace to the Jews, their bottles would not 
hold it ; it burst the bottles, and began to flow on to 
the Gentiles all around. And then they got angry 
with him and sought to put him to death. You may 
pray for the blessing, but if you neglect your Bible 
you won't get it. 

Then another way is to 

STUDY ONE BOOK AT A TIME. 

If you take Genesis, it is the seed-plant of the whole 
Bible ; it tells us of life, death, and resurrection ; it in- 
volves all the rest of the Bible. Or take just one 
word that runs through a book. Some time ago I was 
wonderfully blessed by taking the seven blessings of 
the Revelation. If God did not wish us to under- 
stand the Revelation he would not have given it us at 
all. A good many say it is so dark and mysterious 
common readers cannot understand it. Let us only 
keep digging away at it and it will unfold itself by- 
and-by. Some one says it is the only book in the 
whole Bible that tells about the devil being chained ; 
and as the devil knows that, he goes up and down 
Christendom, and says, " There is no use in your 
reading the Revelation; you cannot understand the 
book ; it's too hard for you." The fact is, he doesn't 
want you to understand about his own defeat. Just 



LOOK AT THE BLESSINGS. 51 



LOOK AT THE BLESSINGS 



it contains. In chapter i. 3. " Blessed is he that read- 
eth the word of this prophecy ; " xxii. 14, " Blessed are 
they that do His commandments, that they may have 
right to the tree of life, and may enter in through 
the gates into the city ; " chapter xvi. 15, " Blessed is 
he that watcheth and keepeth His garments ; " chapter 
xxii. 7, " Blessed is he that keepeth the saying of the 
prophecy of this book." Then there is a blessing on 
them that are kept from the world. We do not belong 
to the world, but belong to the new creation. God 
has taken us out of the old and put us in the new, and 
therefore we keep ourselves from the world ; xiv. IS, 
" Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord ; for they 
shall rest from their labors;" xx. 6, "Blessed are 
they that have part in the first resurrection ; for on 
such the second death hath no power ; and they shall 
live and reign with Christ a thousand years ; " xix. 9, 
" Blessed are they that are called to the marriage sup- 
per of the Lamb." Or you may take the eight over- 
comes of Revelation, and you will get wonderfully 
blessed with them. They take you right up to heaven ; 
you climb by them right up to the throne of God. 

Rev. ii. 7, " To him that overcometh will I give to 
eat of the tree of life." Rev. ii. 11, " He that over- 
cometh shall not be hurt of the second death." Rev. 
ii. 17, " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 



52 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

the hidden manna." Rev. ii. 26, "To him that over- 
cometh will I give power over the nations." Rev. iii. 
5, "He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment." Rev. iii. 12, " Him that over- 
cometh I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, 
and he shall go no more out." Rev. iii. 21, " To him 
that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my 
throne." Rev. xxi. 7, " He that overcometh shall in- 
herit all things." 

In considering the good things God gives us I have 
found much satisfaction in thinking over the 

SEVEN PRECIOUS THINGS 

we have in Peter. There are : 1 Peter ii. 4. Precious 
Lord. 1 Peter ii. 1. Precious Corner-Stone. 1 Pe- 
ter ii. 7. Precious to believers. 1 Peter i. 19. Pre- 
cious Blood. 2 Peter i. 1. Precious Faith. 1 Peter 
i. 7. Precious Trial of Faith. 2 Peter i. 4. Pre- 
cious Promise. 

There are the seven points in Galatians — What we 
are in Christ. Gal. i. 6. Called. Gal. iii. 13. Re- 
deemed. Gal. ii. 16. Justified. Gal. iii. 27. Bap- 
tized. Gal. ii. 20. Crucified. Gal. v. 2. Made free. 
Gal. iv. 7. Heirs of God. 

Then there is 

THAT WORD " KNOW," 

it occurs six times in 1 John iii. In the 5th verse it 
says : " And ye know that he was manifest to take 



53 

away our sins ; and in him is no sin." The next is in 
the 19th verse : " Hereby we know that we are of the 
truth." Some people tell us that it doesn't make any 
difference ; that a lie is as good as the truth if we are 
only sincere. Why, no doubt those false prophets on 
Mount Carmel were sincere ; but John says, " Hereby 
we know that we are of the truth" Then, in the 14th 
r6rse: "We Jcnow that we have passed from death 
unto life, because we love the brethren." There's as- 
surance for you. Then, in the 15th verse : " He that 
hateth his brother is a murderer ; and ye know that no 
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." The 
Christian is not full of jealousy, envy, hatred, and 
malice ; but he is full of " love, joy, peace, long-suffer- 
ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
ance." These are the fruits I shall bear if I have 
Christ in me. Yes, that 5th chapter of Galatians will 
soon tell us if we have the right kind of fruit. Make 
the tree right, and you will soon have the right fruit. 
Then, in the 24th verse : " He that keepeth his com- 
mandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And 
hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the spirit 
He hath given us." Then, in the 2d verse, which is to 
me the most precious of all : " Beloved, now are we. 
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear we 
shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is." 
There's assurance for you again ! In that one chapter 



54 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

there are six assurances. Every truth I get, seems to 
make me lighter and lighter, till I expect to fly away 
by-and-by. I once heard Rev. Mr. Aitken tell about 
a boy who had some gas-bags fastened round him, and 
they were so light that when he came to a fence or a 
ditch he had only just to touch the bags and away they 
carried him right over. And it is just the same when 
we read the Bible, it makes us lighter and lighter, and 
we leap over the obstacles in our way. The truth 
makes us free. A brother in the Lord gave me some 
key-notes recently. He said Peter wrote about hope. 
The key-note of Paul's writing appeared to be faith ; 
and John's theme was love. " Faith hope, and 
charity ; " these were the three characteristics of the 
three men — the key-note to the whole of their teach- 
ings. A Scotch woman complimented on her faith, 
replied, her " faith was very weak but it was in a very 
strong God." So when Christians are feeling discour- 
aged they have only to think of the God in whom they 
trust. You take 

WHAT OUR GOD IS ABLE TO DO. 

Dan. iii. 17. Our God whom we serve is able to 
deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace. Matt. iii. 
9. God is able of these stones to raise up children. 
Rom. iv. 21. What he had promised he was able to 
perform. Rom. xiv. 4. God is able to make him 
stand. 2 Cor. ix. 8, God is able to make all grace 



SEVEN WALKS IN EPHESIANS. 55 

abound. Eph. iii. 20. Able to do exceeding abund- 
antly above all that we can ask or think. 2 Tim. i. 12. 
Able to keep that which I have committed unto him. 
Heb. ii. 18. Able to succor them that are- tempted. 
Heb. vii. 25. Able to save to the uttermost. Jude 
24. Able to keep you from falling. 

And there is the terrible warning to those who re- 
ject Christ in Matt. x. 28. Able to destroy both soul 
and body in hell. 

A study of the 

SEVEN WALKS IN EPHESIANS 

will be helpful in deciding questions that perplex some 
Christians. Eph. ii. 1. Walk of obedience. Eph. v. 
2. Walk in love. Eph. iv. 1. Walk worthy of the 
vocation. Eph. v. 15. Walk circumspectly. Eph. v. 
8. Walk as children of light. Eph. ii. 10. Walk in 
good works. Eph. iv. 17. Walk not as other Gen- 
tiles walk. 

Then, again, I have been greatly blessed by going 
through 

As I said before, he wrote his gospel that we might 
believe. All through it is " believe, believe, believe." 
If you want to persuade a man that Christ is the Son 
of God, John is the gospel for him. Take him right 
into and through the gospel of John. Matthew was 
a Jew, and he writes of Christ as a Jew — as the son 



56 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

of David coming to take his throne. He commences 
with Abraham, and he treats of the kingdom all the 
way down to Christ. Mark begins with Malachi. He 
begins where the Old Testament left off, and speaks 
of Christ as a servant coming to do the will of God. 
Luke begins with Zacharias. He takes up the human 
side and speaks of him as a physician, healing the sick, 
making the lame to walk, and giving sight to the 
blind. But John brings him out of the bosom of the 
Father. He goes beyond Malachi, beyond Abraham, 
beyond Adam — away beyond the morning stars, and 
brings Him out of the Father's bosom, and with one 
stroke of the pen settles the question of Unitarianism 
forever. John was no Unitarian ; every word he wrote 
was against it. He says the Son of God was manifest 
in the flesh. Go through John's gospel, and study the 
" believes," the "verilys," the "I ams," and go 
through the Bible in that way, and it will become a 
new book to you. 

Some one has said that when God sent Moses down 
into Egypt, he gave him a blank check to be filled out 
with anything that he wanted. When he stood before 
Pharaoh he had only to say, The I am that I am has 
sent me, and the water was turned into blood ; the 
frogs came, and finally death fell upon the first born 
in all the land, from Pharaoh that sat upon his throne, 
unto the maid-servant that is behind the mill. In the 
wilderness he wanted water, and God gave it. And 
bread was sent from heaven at Moses' call. 



THE "i AMS." 57 



of John's gospel give us our food, show us our way, 
and carry us right up to where our risen Lord is. 
John vi. 35, " I am the Bread of Life." 
John viii. 12, " I am the Light of the world." 
John viii. 58, " Before Abraham was I Am." 
John x. 7, " I am the Door." 
John x. 11, " 1 am the good Shepherd." 
John xi. 25, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." 
John xiv. 6, "I am the Way." 
John xvii. 24, " Be with me where I am." 
I have recently gotten seven points in Christian at- 
tainment : 

Psalms- xxiii. 2, " Lying down" — at rest. 
Luke xiv. 39, "Sitting" — to lean. 
Eph. vi. 13, 14, " Standing" — on the defensive. 
Isaiah xl. 31, " Walking " — on God's errand. 
Heb. ii. 1, " Running " — eager to do God's will. 
Psalms xviii. 21, " Leaping " — overcome difficulties. 
Isaiah xl. 31, " Mounting up on wings" — rising 
above the world. 

Another plan, and a good one too, is when a preach- 
er gives out a text, just take and mark it, and as he 
goes on preaching, 

MAKE MARGINAL NOTES, 

a few words in the margin, key-words that shall bring 
back the whole sermon again. By this plan of mak- 



58 HOW TO STUDY THE iilBLE. 

ing a few marginal notes, I can remember sermons I 
heard years and years ago. Every man ought to take 
down some of the preacher's words and ideas, and then 
go into some lane or alley and preach them out again 
to others. We ought to have four ears, two for our- 
selves and two for other people. Then, if you are in 
a new town, and have nothing else to say, jump up 
and say, " I heard some one say so-and-so ; " they will 
always be glad to hear you if you give them heavenly 
food. The w T orld is perishing for lack of it. 

Some eight years ago, I heard an Englishman in 
Chicago preach from a curious text (Proverbs xxx. 24): 
" There be 

FOUR THINGS 

which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding 
wise." "Well," I said to myself, "what w r ill you 
make of these little things ? I have seen them a good 
many times." Then he went on reading, "The ants 
are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in 
the summer." He said God's people were like the 
ants. " Well," I -said, " I have seen a good many of 
them, but I never saw one like me." They were like 
the ants, he said, because they were laying up treasure 
in heaven, and preparing for the future ; but the world 
rushed madly on, and forgot all about God's command 
to lay up for ourselves incorruptible treasures. " The 
conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses 
in the rocks/' He said the conies were very weak 



FOUR THINGS. 59 

things ; if you were to throw a stick at one of them 
you woiild kill it ; but they were very wise, for they 
built their houses in the rocks, and where they are out 
of harm's way. And God's people are very wise, al- 
though very feeble, for they built on the Rock of Ages, 
and that Eock was Christ. "Well," I said, "I am 
certainly like the conies." Then came the next verse : 
" The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of 
them in bands; " and I wondered what he was going 
to make of that. Now God's people, he said, had 
no king down here; the world said, "Caesar is our 
king;" but he was not our king, our king was the 
Lord of hosts. The locusts went out by bands, so did 
God's people ; here was a Presbyterian band, here an 
Episcopalian band, here a Methodist band, and so on ; 
but by-and-by the great King would come and catch 
up all those separate bands, and they would all be one, 
having one fold and one Shepherd. And when I heard 
that explanation I said, " I want to be like the locusts.'* 
I have got so sick, my friends, of this miserable denom- 
inationalism, I wish it could all be swept away. Well, 
he went on again. " The spider taketh hold with her 
hands, and is in the kings' palaces." Well, when he 
got to the spider, I said, "I don't like that at all, and 
don't like the idea of being compared to a spider." 
But, he said, if you went into a king's palace, there 
you might see the spider hanging on his gossamer 
web, and looking down with scorn and contempt on 



60 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

the gilded saloon ; he was laying hold of things above. 
And so every child of God ought to be like a spider, 
and lay hold of the unseen things of God. "And so,"- 
he said, " you see, my brethren, we who are God's peo- 
ple are like the ants, the conies, the locusts, and the 
spider, little things, but exceedingly wise." I just put 
that down, and the recollection of it does me as much 
good now as when I first heard it. 

I have carried this Bible w T ith me a good many 
years. It is worth more to me than all the Bibles in 
this place, and I will tell you why ; because I have so 
many passages marked in it, and if I am called upon 
to speak at any time I am ready. I have these little 
words in the margin, and they are a sermon to me.,. 
Whether I speak about faith, hope, charity, assurance, 
or any subject whatever, it all comes back to me; 
and however unexpectedly I am called upon to preach, 
I am always ready. Every child of God ought to be 
like a soldier, and always hold himself in readiness, 
but we can't be ready if we don't study the Bible. So 
whenever you hear a good thing, just put it down, 
because if it's good for you it will be good for some- 
body else ; and we should pass the coin of heaven 
round just as you do the current money of the land. 

In 1872 an Englishman said to me, " Moody, did 
you ever notice this, that 

JOB IS THE KEY TO THE WHOLE BIBLE ; 

if you understand Job you will understand the entire 



JOB IS THE KEY TO THE WHOLE BIBLE. 61 

Bible?" "No," I said, "I don't understand that. 
Job the key to the whole Bible ! How do you make 
that out ?" He said, " I divide Job into seven heads. 
You know ministers generally have a great many 
heads to their sermons. The first head is : A perfect 
man untried. That's what God said about Job ; 
that's Adam in Eden. He was perfect w^hen God put 
him there. The second head is : Tried by adversity ; 
and Job fell as Adam fell in Eden. The third head 
is : The wisdom of the tvorld. The world tries to re- 
store Job ; the three wise men came to help Job. 
That w r as the wisdom of the world centred in those 
three men. You cannot," said he, "find any such 
eloquent language or wisdom anywhere in any part of 

Clhe world as these three men had ; but they did not 
know anything about grace, and could not therefore 
help Job." And that's just what men are trying to 
do now, and the result is they fail. Take the scien- 
tific men of our day who talk against the Bible. Have 
they made the world any better ? the wisdom of man 
never made man any better. These three men did 
not help Job, but they made him worse. Some one 
has said the first man took him and gave him a good 
pull, and then the second and the third did the same, 
and the three of them had three good pulls at Job, 

^and then flat down they fell. A good many men fall 
when they get into an argument. Very unprofitable 
things these arguments are. Job could stand any- 



62 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

thing better than those three men ; he could even 
have stood a scolding wife better than his three 
friends. " Then in the fourth place,'' said he, "in 
comes the days-man, that is Christ. Then in the fifth 
place, God speaks, and in the sixth Job learns his les- 
son. ' I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; 
but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor 
myself, and repent in dust and ashes,' and down he 
w r ent in the dust ; he had learnt his lesson. And the 
seventh head is this, that God restores him." Thank 
God, my friends, it is so with us, and 

OUR LAST STATE IS BETTER THAN OUR FIRST. 

I would rather be a resurrected man with Christ 
than be Adam in Eden without Christ. Adam might 
have been in Eden ten thousand years, and then the 
devil might have come in and he might have fallen. 
But now Satan cannot get at us, so that we are better 
off than Adam was in Eden. God came down and 
gave man an earthly kingdom, and Satan came and 
said, "I will mar the work of God and destroy it." 
But God came down again and said, " I will lift up 
Adam and all his sons higher, even unto the heavens, 
and will break the power of Satan ;" and God kept his 
promise, when He gave His Son to die for us. A 
friend of mine said to me, " Look here, Moody, God 
gave to Job double of everything. He would not 
even admit that Job had lost his children, He had 



OUR LAST STATE IS BETTER THAN OUR FIRST. 63 

taken them all to heaven, and He gave him ten 
more. ,, So Job had ten in heaven and ten on earth 
— a goodly family. So when our children are taken 
from us they are not lost to us, but merely gone be- 
fore. 

In conclusion I would advise all young converts to 
keep in the company as much as they can of more 
experienced Christians. I like to keep in the society 
of those who know more than I do, and I never lose a 
chance of getting all I can out of them. Study the 
Bible carefully and prayerfully, ask of others what 
this passage means and what that passage means, and 
when you have become practically acquainted with 
the great truths it contains, you will have less to fear 
from the world, the flesh, ar d the devil. 

D. L. MOODY. 



■54(1 



